Many of today's consumer electronics are packing more function in less space. This is evidenced by the emergence of cell phone camcorders, wrist watch cell phones with integrated cameras, cell phone sized tablet computers, and personal music players slightly larger than a coin.
The challenges to integrated circuit manufacturers is one of scaling transistors to a size that will allow integration of the millions of transistors required to implement these functions and provide enough interface contacts to allow the functions to work properly. Quite often the amount of functions that are integrated will be limited by the number of interface interconnects that can be provided in a given space. Advances in the development of interface density has pushed the number of interconnects from 40 pin integrated circuits to 400-1000 pin flip chip integrated circuits.
With the dramatic increase in input/output (I/O) pin count, a new limiter has come on the scene. Removing the heat generated by the switching of millions of transistors can be a daunting task. Integrated circuits having limited functions and tens of I/O pins could rely on the heat being transmitted through I/O interconnects themselves. The heat would flow from the integrated circuit chip through the packaging interconnects to a system board that had sufficient mass to dissipate the thermal energy.
In today's integrated circuit packages, the number of transistors that can expel heat through the I/O interconnects is limited due to the thermal resistance of the path and the sheer number of transistors generating the heat. Since excessive heat has a major impact on the reliability of an integrated circuit, solutions to this problem is of utmost importance.
Thus, a need still remains for an integrated circuit packaging system with heat spreader for improving the reliability of ever shrinking packages. In view of the advances in the number of transistors that can be integrated in a single package and the amount of heat a package must be able to dissipate, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.